


the problem with courtship

by orphan_account



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Arranged Marriage, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Modern Royalty, Mutual Pining, Sexual Tension, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, Song: This is My Idea (Swan Princess), fairytale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:21:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23535946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Fairytales tend to get a little weird when the Big Bad Wolf and the Wicked Witch of the West are the heroes of the story.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman
Comments: 35
Kudos: 196





	1. What A Match

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve apparently become CEO of writing several fics at the same time. 
> 
> Ok, so some things for this fic: 
> 
> 1\. It’s loosely based off of the song This Is My Idea from the Swan Princess. 
> 
> 2\. Hope isn’t a tribrid in this fic, she’s just a werewolf

“Be polite.” Klaus hisses, his mouth right by Hope’s ear. He stands back to his full height and shoves Hope forward with one hand, sending his only daughter stumbling forward.

Hope feels like an absolute fool, standing in front of Alaric and Josie Saltzman. They’ve been talking about this for about a year now and yet Hope still isn’t prepared. She had gotten semi-used to the idea of an arranged marriage, but now, actually looking at Josie in the flesh, Hope feels totally knocked off center. 

She watches Alaric do something similar to what Klaus had done and suddenly Josie is tumbling forward, accidentally bumping into Hope. 

Josie lets out an awkward string of apologies and then falls silent. They stare at each other for a moment before Hope grabs her dress and dips her head, remembering her manners. Josie rushes to do the same, and once they’re both done curtseying, they dip back into uncomfortable silence again.

Hope feels the telltale sting on her back that lets her know her father is glaring at her. She straightens up from her slumped position and makes the first move, taking several steps forward and then one back when she realizes she’s entirely too close to Josie. 

“I’m Hope Mikaelson.” Hope says, even though she’s pretty sure Josie already knows that. 

“Josie.” The other girl replies. Alaric taps her shoulder and she rephrases, looking shy. “Josie Saltzman. I’m happy you could come.”

It sounds incredibly forced, but Josie does it well. She keeps her back straight and speaks clearly despite the blush crawling onto her cheeks. Hope feels immediate jealousy, she’s never been able to get through a proper conversation without squirming.

“I’m happy to be here.” Hope responds, her first lie of the day.

Josie smiles in a way that seems forced. Or maybe that’s just her smile. Hope decides that if it is, Josie has an ugly smile. 

She watches Josie’s eyes go down to her hand and then back up to Hope. Hope knows what she’s supposed to do, but she avoids it until Klaus presses a single finger into her back. Since Hope can almost feel the anger coming off of her father in waves she sighs, wondering when she became the boy of this whole operation, and dips down to take Josie’s hand. 

Hope kisses it as quickly as she possibly can. Josie’s hand is soft and small, and that’s weirdly pleasant in a way Hope can’t understand. She moves away from Josie like she’s been burned and tries not to glare at her. Josie’s fist clenches at her side, looking as if she wants to wipe any trace of Hope off of her skin.

“Perfect. What a match.” Alaric claps his hands together, somehow managing to not sound sarcastic. “Would you like to see the inside of the castle?”

It’s a question that has no other answer but yes. In a second, they all turn and start walking up the road towards the castle doors. Now that they don’t have to speak to each other, Hope feels some tension drop out of her shoulders.

Hope already doesn’t like this. The Saltzman’s castle is too far away from home - it took an aggravating three days to get here, which included both a carriage and a boat. It also looks nothing like her home. Sure, it’s just as big, but the castle takes up more land than Hope is used to. The fields they have are decorated with fountains and statues instead of animals running free. 

She already misses her dogs. Klaus had gotten her four puppies about a month before they left and when she gets back after summer they’ll be too big to recognize. 

All of this is wrong, from the lack of puppies nipping at her ankles to the way Josie stares at her like she expects Hope to suddenly take her by the waist and waltz her down the road. It’s strange how big Josie’s eyes are, how plump her bottom lip is. She looks fragile, almost like she’s never touched the dirt a day in her life. Hope immediately doesn’t want to play with her. 

“Do you have trains?” Hope asks, looking up to direct the question towards Alaric. “I like trains.” 

“Oh, uh. Yes.” 

Hope nods. At least she can look forward to playing with a train. That should pass maybe an hour of time if she can manage to sit still. 

They go into the castle and Alaric shows them up the stairs to what Hope assumes is their main living room. There are family portraits along the walls, but Hope doesn’t care about seeing anything but the trains. Alaric seems to notice how antsy she is and pulls a train set out of a drawer. He gives both girls a slightly anxious look before putting it down on the floor. 

“It’s a little old.” He explains. “I haven't gotten a chance to use it much since I only have daughters.”

Alaric bites his lip like maybe he phrased that wrong, but Hope knows what he means by now. The things she likes to play with - trains, dirt, wooden swords - aren’t usually wanted by an eight year old girl, especially a princess. People are often surprised to find her dolls untouched. 

“It looks nice. Thank you.” Hope says, nodding at him. Alaric and Klaus share a glance before leaving Hope and Josie to play. 

They start to assemble the train set in silence, working slowly like they’re trying to prolong the time they won’t have to speak to each other. Hope is fine with that. She actually thinks it would be better if they went the whole summer without saying another word to each other. Maybe if they resist enough Hope won’t have to have Josie in her home next summer (or worse, come back here), and their parents will drop this stupid idea of marriage. 

Eventually they get the train working and sit back to watch it. Hope watches it do three laps before she caves and glances at Josie, spotting the girl’s bored look. 

She knew she said she wasn’t going to talk, but staying silent makes Hope restless.

“You have a sister?” Hope asks, remembering how Alaric had said ‘daughters’.

“Oh, yes. I do.” Josie nods. When their eyes meet, it’s uncomfortable for the both of them, so Josie keeps her eyes on the train. “Her name is Lizzie - Elizabeth. She’s with the Greasley family all summer. She’s going to marry Milton.” 

Hope laughs, not being able to stop herself. “You mean MG?” 

MG lives close to Hope’s village, close enough for them to be friends. They write letters back and forth sometimes. He’s nice and all, but most of the time they either talk about hunting or how every girl besides Hope has cooties. Hope isn’t sure if she’s a firm believer in cooties, but she’s sure that she can’t imagine MG falling for any girl ever. 

“Do you know him?” 

“Yeah. He’s nice.” Hope bites her lip to try and contain her smile. She knows Josie wants to hear more, but she’s not about to talk about MG without him here. “I’m bored.”

Hope gets up and walks over to the drawers that Alaric had gotten the train set out of. She feels Josie watching her, but pays her no mind and starts carefully opening up drawers. There are toys in every single one, but none of them excite her. Dolls, miniature wooden people, blocks. She finally comes up with an idea and grabs a handful of the wooden people. 

Once Hope sits back down she inspects the mini people in her hand. There are five of them. One is taller than the rest and flat, another is a bit shorter and sort of curvy, and the last three are small with dainty, childlike features. It looks to be a family.

“What are you doing?” Josie asks, but Hope ignores her. 

She arranges them all in a line on the side and stares them down, deciding which one she’s going to sacrifice first. That makes her sound crazy, but she likes this game. Killing things is fun if the things are fake. It sates the odd, predatory urge in her that’s always there. Better she kills wood than anyone actually living.

Hope finally decides on the mom first. She sets the toy down along the train tracks and waits for what happens. Her train back at home is strong enough to knock wood off of the track, but she’s not sure if the Saltzman’s will do the same. The uncertainty entertains her enough that she can sit still for a minute. 

“Wait, stop.” Josie says, reaching out to take the toy off the tracks. Hope mindlessly bats her hand away.

The train rolls down the track and runs right over the toy, leaving it caught in the train’s wheels. It slows down and then stops, but Hope thinks that was the best thing she’s seen since she got here. She feels almost as if she’s having fun until she looks over and sees Josie crying. 

Crying over a toy? How is Hope ever supposed to be married to this girl?

Hope is about to tease Josie for being a complete wimp but Josie sniffles pathetically and something in Hope’s heart softens. 

“Don’t cry. I’m sorry I-“

Before Hope knows what’s happening, Josie is flinging herself at Hope. Suddenly they’re wrestling, pushing and pulling at each other with frantic hands. Josie is a little taller but Hope is stronger, so they keep on rolling around with no real winner. They go tumbling down the stairs soon enough in a mess of angry limbs and petty insults. 

The sound of them falling and finally hitting the final step is loud enough that they both pause and realize the position they’re in. Josie is on top of Hope, but that isn’t the worst part of all of this. Her father is going to kill her. She can’t believe she just wrestled Josie on the first day. From the look on Josie’s face, she’s also afraid of Alaric’s punishment. 

Hope is about to kick Josie off of her so they can pose innocently, but she suddenly feels a strange warmth on her stomach. It’s uncomfortable, like standing too close to a fire. She looks down at where Josie’s hands are clutching the front of her dress and her mouth pops open in shock. Josie’s hands are glowing red around the edges. 

For a moment, Hope thinks she’s going insane, but then she feels it. When she hears their parents' footsteps coming over to check on them, she tries to move and finds that she’s too weak to get out from under Josie. It’s as if her power is being sucked right out of her. Feeling panicked and threatened, she growls at Josie and allows her eyes to turn yellow. 

Josie yelps and scrambles away from her. Hope sits up and they both stare at each other, panting. What the hell was that? 

“Hope. What are you doing?” Klaus storms down the stairs, looking rightfully pissed off. Alaric is right behind him and wears the same expression.

Hope glances at Josie, watching her shrink in on herself.

“We were just playing.” Hope murmurs, feeling guilty. She knows how bad this must look. Her father knows she’s prone to fighting and Josie’s face is still tear-streaked. “I’m sorry we made so much noise.”

“Yeah, just playing.” Josie chimes in quickly. 

Both men look between the two girls. It seems like an obvious lie but Hope is doubtful she’ll get in a lot of trouble now, especially if Josie claims that they were getting along. She can’t be punished for making friends with her future wife (which still sounds gross, but Hope can bite her tongue). 

“Okay, well.” Alaric sighs, scratching the back of his neck. “We’re going to have dinner soon. We should all get ready. Klaus, do you remember where your rooms are?”

“Yes, thank you.” Klaus nods and helps Hope to her feet. 

Honestly, she’s still shocked by what she saw. Hope knows that she’s strange - she turns into a wolf every full moon. She’s used to her strangeness, to bright eyes, claws, and howling. This is a whole different type of weird, one Hope isn’t accustomed to. 

As Klaus hauls her away, she can’t help but look over her shoulder at Josie. When she looks, Josie is staring right back.

“You didn’t do anything, did you?” Klaus asks later, once Hope is bathed and dressed in her dinner clothes. 

He’s brushing Hope’s hair in front of the mirror, getting it neat for when they eat in about six minutes. She doesn’t really enjoy looking like this. Hope can stand the standard dress she was wearing when she got here, but this a lot tighter and more formal. She would usually complain, but she gets the sense that her father is on edge because they’re in a new place and they’re trying to make a good first impression. 

Besides, he must know that something happened with Josie. Unlike Alaric, Klaus has the heightened ears to have heard them fighting. Thankfully there’s no way he could sense Hope flashing her eyes at Josie like that, but if he knew he would be so angry that Hope doesn’t know what he’d do. 

Not getting Josie to marry her is bad, but exposing their abilities to the world is much, much worse. 

“No.” Hope lies, trying to keep her heartbeat steady. “I didn’t.” 

“Why are you lying?”

Great, she’s screwed. 

Hope sighs and gets up from the chair. She tries to make herself look small and a little sad so maybe he won’t be as angry with her.

“I put this wooden toy of a woman on the train tracks and Josie just freaked out.” Hope admits, not going into the details of the crying, fighting, or supernatural exposure. It’s not a total lie, so she knows her heart rate won’t spike. “I didn’t mean to piss her off.”

Klaus looks confused for a moment before he frowns, shaking his head as he joins Hope on the bed. 

“Do you know what happened to Josie’s mom?”

Hope suddenly wants to leave the room. “No.”

“A little while ago, I think two years, her mom fell onto the tracks. I heard from Alaric they were very close.” Klaus explains gently. “Josie is named after her mother, Josette.” 

“Oh.”

Hope feels as if she might cry. She’s never felt guilt like this before. She was a total and complete jerk, and Josie had every right to hit her. Josie has every right to hate her and do that weird stealing-power thing. If someone brought up Hayley’s death in that manner, Hope would have decked them. 

“Just apologize, okay?” Klaus asks, standing up. 

Hope nods. “Okay.” 

They both collect themselves and then head out for dinner.


	2. A Freak & A Hypocrite

Dinner is some sort of pasta dish that mildly resembles spaghetti. Hope isn’t sure if she really likes it or not. She isn’t picky with food, usually she just shovels down meat before rushing outside again to play. This pasta feels strange going down her throat and sits heavily in her stomach. Hope thinks it tastes fine, but it’s a little hard to eat with Josie across the table from her. 

Hope doesn’t know how she’s going to marry Josie - now Josie has ruined food for her. 

She really can’t live without food. She also can’t live with some crazy wizard (or whatever Josie is) who literally sucks the life out of her. It doesn’t help that whenever Hope raises her head to answer one of Klaus or Alaric’s questions, she catches Josie’s eyes and feels guilty. 

Hope hates apologizing to people, especially because most of the times she’s done it she hasn’t felt particularly sorry, but she remembers what it had been like when her mom died. The funeral was terrible. Thousands of people came, everyone from her kingdom flocked in to pay their respects. People Hope had never met before would come up to her to comment on how amazing Hayley had been, and it all felt distant and wrong because it made it seem as if Hope didn’t really know her mother at all. 

“Do you like archery, Hope?” Alaric asks, making Hope pause where she’s twirling pasta around her fork. 

She tries very hard not to look at Josie when she answers, but she can still see the blurry outline of tan skin in the corner of her eye and smell the too clean scent of a princess. 

“No.” Hope says simply, because she hasn’t tried it before. She’s too young - her dad keeps saying she has to wait to reach nine, so that’s another year for her. 

“No?” Klaus prompts, sounding tense.

Hope has been dodging questions and throwing out one word answers all night. Josie hasn’t been very vocal either. She seems intent on staring blatantly at Hope, with those big brown eyes that Hope is beginning to hate because they seem to look right into her soul. All of it has led to a very awkward dinner, complete with fatherly anger on both sides. 

“Well.” Hope starts, feeling the urge to tuck her leg under herself or start running. She fights it, because neither are polite or ladylike. “I think it’s cool, but I’ve never tried. My dad won’t let me.”

That last sentence comes out a little whiny, but she can’t help it. She’s too old to throw a tantrum over it, but the fact that he won’t even let her hold a bow is stupid, especially when Hope has claws and super healing abilities. Even if she did somehow manage to hit herself with an arrow, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. And if she hit someone else… well, the curse is already triggered. 

“Josie has tried it.” He says, much to Hope’s surprise. Hope looks over at Josie and feels the air kicked out of her lungs. She quickly looks away. “She’s not very good, but-“

“I hit Lizzie once-“ 

“She could show you the basics, sometime. If that’s okay with your dad, of course.”

Alaric and Klaus share a look over the girls’ heads. Hope gets the sense that she’s suddenly going to be able to try archery a year early. She knows that this is just their parents trying to push them together with a shared activity, but she’s okay with it. She’s been wanting to do this ever since she saw the castle guards shooting targets outside her window. 

Hope tries to picture Josie with a bow and arrow. It seems strange. Hope isn’t surprised that Josie isn’t good at it, but she’s shocked Josie even tried. She’s also jealous. Still, it’s enough for her to sit up and start talking.

“That’s so cool.” Hope says, all in one breath, finally looking at Josie. “Did you kill anything?” 

Klaus gives her this look (one that means she’s not being ladylike at all and that this conversation would probably be better to have with one of the guards back at home) but Hope ignores it. 

Josie makes a face as she considers the question, looking almost as if she’s not sure if she killed something or not. “No.”

Hope deflates but she still thinks it’s kind of cool. She almost wants to tell Josie about how she killed several rabbits this one time on a full moon, but she thinks that Josie will find that even less cool than Klaus did. She still doesn’t understand what was so wrong about the rabbits, especially considering she learned how to make stew with them after and shared with the guards - it was a win win for everybody but Klaus, who got grumpy.

He is always a little grumpy though. 

Since the four of them are mostly done eating and none of Alaric and Klaus’ conversation starters have really gone anywhere, dinner ends a couple minutes after that. While the servants come to clean up their dishes and fix the table, Alaric goes over to Josie and starts speaking to his daughter about (probably) Hope. 

Hope only gets a second of watching him kneel to talk to her before Klaus gently pulls her out of ear shot. 

“You have five minutes alone.” He explains. “Apologize to Josie and try to be friendly, okay?”

“Okay.” She agrees. 

When Hope glances back over at Alaric and Josie, she sees that Alaric is holding Josie in front of him like an offering. Klaus pushes her forward so they’re in similar positions, and then both men leave the room. 

Josie just stares at Hope blankly. Hope sighs and takes several steps forward, being reminded of their first meeting again. She wonders if she’ll have to take all of the initiative here, but then decides that things could be worse. 

When her parents had first brought up the idea of an arranged marriage, she assumed it was going to be with a boy. Which wasn’t all that terrible, except for the fact that boys basically called all the shots in most marriages and Hope probably wouldn’t be able to do most of the things she loves - wrestling, hunting, anything to do with trains really - with a boy. 

Basically, Hope is just glad that Josie ended up being Josie and not Jacob or something. 

“I’m sorry.” Hope says. 

“For what?” Josie questions and Hope bites the inside of her cheek, fighting the urge to punch the girl. 

It doesn’t help that Josie sounds so innocent, almost as if she doesn’t actually remember what happened just hours ago. The only reason Hope doesn’t smack her is because Klaus would absolutely kill her. 

“For the whole… train thing.” Hope bounces on her heels. Without the adults there, she’s free to squirm. “And for the fighting.”

“I’m sorry, too.” 

Hope nods and holds out her hand for Josie to shake, because she’s definitely not going to curtsy again if she has no obligation to. Josie seems hesitant to touch her, but eventually she does. The first shake goes fine, but the second one makes their joined hands glow red. Hope watches the glow swallow her whole hand and then feels herself suddenly grow tired to the point that it’s almost hard to stand. 

She yanks her hand away, her eyes turning yellow again before she can stop it. “You have to stop being such a freak.”

“I’m not a freak.”

“Oh yeah, sure. You’re totally normal.” Hope grumbles, feeling her anger get the best of her. 

Hope blinks rapidly, trying to rid the color from her eyes, but her body has already sensed a threat. She can see the outline of Josie’s body in front of her, except she thinks that her vision is messed up because Josie looks strange. It looks almost as if Josie is hovering in the air, along with every bit of furniture in the room, but that’s impossible. 

In an effort to fix her eyes, Hope roughly presses her palms against them until her vision clears. Once she does, she faces an entirely new problem, because she looks down and suddenly realizes her feet aren’t even on the floor. 

Panicked, Hope looks to Josie. 

“You’re a hypocrite.” Josie says. Hope doesn’t know what that means, but she knows it’s bad by the way Josie says it.

“No I’m not.” She protests.

Her heart rate rises on account of the fact that everything, including her, is about three inches in the air right now, and her eyes go yellow again. She really needs to get a handle on this. Luckily, she doesn’t have the ability to go full wolf on anyone unless it’s a full moon (her dad says she can’t learn that one until she’s a teenager), and she isn’t going to claw Josie’s face off. 

That, of course, doesn’t stop Hope from trying to tackle Josie. She pushes forward in the air and ends up just spinning dumbly until Josie finally sets them down and Hope lands on her back.

There’s an extra loud crash as everything hits the floor again at once. Their parents are definitely going to come rushing in here and kill them both. Josie looks at Hope as if she’s asking for help. 

“No way.” Hope shakes her head. “This is all your fault and I’m telling them that.” 

It’s definitely not her fault that Josie is crazy. Sure, Hope turns into a wolf every month and has anger issues, but that’s manageable. She’s never nearly destroyed an entire room or made things fly. The worst thing that happens on a day to day basis is Hope accidentally breaking something small with her extra strength or her eyes shining yellow - Josie is a whole other type of crazy that Hope is not going to deal with. 

As soon as their parents get in here, Hope is going to spill everything and her dad will take her away from this freak show. 

Josie stumbles over her words for a moment. “Well… you have weird eyes! I’ll tell them that.” 

“You can’t prove that.”

Josie stares at her for a second before reaching over and pinching Hope’s arm. Hope straight up growls at her like a wild animal, and it’s troubling how Josie just smirks instead of flinching away. Okay, maybe Hope has a problem with her powers, but she absolutely hates this girl. 

She needs to get out of being Josie’s wife, this just isn’t the way to do it.

“Fine.” She agrees. “What do we do?” 

Josie seems hesitant to get close to Hope, but the sound of footsteps growing even closer make her scramble closer. Josie tugs at Hope’s hand, much to Hope’s disgust. 

“I’m not holding your hands, you freak-“

“Shut up.” Josie hisses. 

They both watch as their hands glow red again. This time Hope tries not to panic, because if she does she’ll probably do something stupid. Whatever Josie is doing doesn’t feel good. It makes Hope incredibly tired. She feels weak in a way she hasn’t since she triggered the curse, and it’s in her instincts to want to attack Josie for taking Hope’s powers somehow, but she fights the urge. 

When Josie closes her eyes and starts saying something in a different language, Hope decides this is too weird and tries to wrench her hands away. Josie tightens her hold and keeps Hope locked in place, even as Hope struggles. 

Yeah, this is it. Hope is going to end up getting murdered by this weirdo someday. No one has been stronger than her besides her father in years. She’s won arm wrestling matches against three hundred pound men. It’s absurd, how Josie is suddenly strong enough that Hope can’t even pull her hand away. 

The weirdest part of all this is that things start moving. Not Hope or Josie, but objects in the room that had toppled over when they were levitating. Silverware goes back into place, chairs slide to the proper places at the table, and pictures raise up off the floor to stick to the walls.

It’s so bizarre that Hope can’t even speak. Or maybe that’s just because her vision is getting a bit blurry. 

Her eyelids are heavy when Josie releases her. Hope would complain, but their parents come inside before she can get a word out.

“What are you two doing?” Alaric asks. It must seem strange, having heard all of that noise and now seeing Josie and Hope sitting on the floor near each other with nothing in their hands to explain themselves. 

“Playing.” Josie explains immediately, even though Alaric and Klaus don’t look as if they believe that at all. “Hope is actually really tired. Can I take her to her room?” 

Klaus looks between them awkwardly. He probably wants to accuse them of something, but they’re supposed to bond and playing in each other’s rooms is a good step forward. “Oh. Uh. Sure.” 

Josie wraps her arm around Hope’s waist and hoists her up. Hope tries not to look too out of it. She also bites down on her tongue, because if she says any words they will be: get me away from this creep.

No one says anything while Josie practically drags Hope away. Alaric and Klaus aren’t going to stop an opportunity for Hope and Josie to hangout, and Hope is… well, she’s supposed to marry this creep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments! They’ve been fun to read :D
> 
> Also, totally off topic for this fic, but is Josie more of a top than I’ve realized?


End file.
